Topic: Something Else could be the issue and not a clipboard problem (Read 213 times)

I agree, bugs don't usually going to make you paste an unknown Bitcoin address. When it does happen then obviously that your PC or device has been infected by a malware.

While it's good to actually check if something's gonna fix by restarting as this is what we mostly do when we see some unknown issues within our PCs. But when the PC is already infected, there's no way that restarting is going to help. And in the first place, why would someone is going to install a clipboard manager? This is also one of the cause why someone's PC is infected. With all of these random downloads that don't really needed by an individual is causing them a ruckus. When you intend to download a specific application that will make you more productive, please do a check first if it's really needed and if it's a genuine copy that you're downloading. One factor why people are getting infected is when they download random things freely for free.

@Catenaccio
Dusting Attacks are different from Address Poisoning Scams.

A dusting attack is an attempt to identify you and attack your privacy, not necessarily the value in your wallets. The senders follow the trail of your transactions, hoping you will send them somewhere associated with your real name.

Address poisoning scams are attempts to get to your money. The scammers want that you copy their address and paste it as the destination address in a new transaction. It works successfully if you don't follow the procedures of how to verify an address properly, and if you copy addresses from block explorers and your wallet's transaction history.

By doing it properly, you don't have to worry about these scam attempts.

Do you even know or realized that some of these clipboard manager installed are the major reason for the malware attack or are the malware themselves we don't know, I could remember well that when using a device for your cryptocurrency investments, try as much as possible to always avoid it from being connected to the internet, this make including making downloads, installations and all manners of things that may serves as routes to how malware attacks can be introduced on us.

Dust Attack, what it is, why it is dangerous and how to prevent falling to it
What Is a Crypto Dusting Attack?
Crypto dusting.

In Electrum wallet, if someone send us a dust bitcoin amount, we can freeze it and unfreeze it.

What does it mean to “freeze” an address in Electrum?

I'm sorry that you fell for such a cheap trick, because you should have already learned that you should carefully check every coin address, and not only the first and last few characters - especially if it's about transactions of higher value like yours. I remembered that @Pmalek opened thread on that topic at the very beginning of January, and I'm really curious if you made a mistake before or after that?

What are Address Poisoning Scams?


Personally, I am not afraid of all those threats that are known because I know how I can protect myself, but I am much more worried about the unknown. I have no doubt that hackers will be more and more innovative because as the price of Bitcoin increases, their desire to steal it from someone will be even greater.

A clipboard manager and a clipboard virus could be one and the same. I have never installed a third party clipboard manager because there is always a risk that a developer could sell their business and the new owners will push an update that contains malicious code. There are frequent stories of apps in the Play Store with millions of downloads being compromised so anything that has the potential to steal private keys or replace an address it is just better to avoid.

There is an attack poisoning that sends you a scam transactions with 5 same characters from front and back of your address and it's actually a scam address.
It happened to me this year in January and that made me lost $5k, I was sending my Crypto from Exchange to my Hardware Wallet.
There is so much stuff to worry about as of now as the technology advances, new methods of scamming evolves.

I'm not saying that your method isn't good, but maybe you're paying the fee three times instead of once completely unnecessary. The point is to confirm that the address you copied into the "send to" field is identical to the one you received, i.e. you are viewing it in another window. If there is no change at the time of copying, then you can consider that your system is safe - and you can do the final check in the transaction preview option, regardless of whether it is a desktop wallet or a hardware wallet.

However, since mistakes are costly when it comes to cryptocurrency transactions, any method that adds extra security should not be considered expensive or unnecessary. I've had some very valuable transactions in the past, and I've always checked everything at least five times, no matter how time consuming it was.

Clipboard issues could be caused by a lot of things, but I definitely don't think bugs can suddenly make you paste a hacker's wallet address instead of yours. Bugs can only cause you to clear your clipboard, and/or fail copy-pasting.

It is easy to distinguish between clubboard viruses as they replace your Bitcoin address with another Bitcoin address. This behavior cannot occur due to a system update, clipboard manager, or any other reason. Therefore, whenever you find that your Bitcoin address has changed to another Bitcoin address that you did not make a copy, it is better. Delete all data on your device and reinstall the operating system, especially if you are using it for financial purposes.

Checking coin addresses is important but with large value transactions, I will be more careful.

I will split that value to different transactions that are smaller and rather than making one transaction with a value of $10,000, assume this value is large. I will split it to like 3 transactions and make one by one. I will make a first transaction with a value like $3,000 and wait for a confirmation that receiver or receiving address actually gets it. It means my device is good to make other two transactions.

It will cost me more transaction fee but compare it to losing all $10,000, it is worth to do.

It can always be something else, because sometimes it's about an OS file being corrupted and that's why the computer is behaving strangely - but at least that's easy to fix if it's a Windows OS. The most important thing is for each user to understand the entry points for each virus/malware, and if we know that, we can protect ourselves from it.

I can say that I have been a computer user for a long time and that in the beginning I had problems with viruses/malware, but that I learned my lesson and left all those things that can lead to computer infections. In short, don't download pirated software (cracks), don't click on suspicious links and use a reliable antivirus + firewall and you won't have to worry about clipboard malware.

Of course, and with all that, always check your coin addresses in detail, especially when dealing with large value transactions.

There are several issues that resemble clipboard malware problems but may have different causes. I want you to know about them before your conclude that you are having a clipboard malware on your system.

The first of these issues is that when you install a clipboard manager, it can affect the normal clipboard functions on your computer. So, if you notice abnormal behavior when using CTRL-C and CTRL-V, it may not be malware but rather a clipboard management software issue.

Before you exclaim "Malware," check and ensure that your computer is free of bugs, as bugs can be one of the culprits. The solution here is to restart the computer. If the issue persists, then we can conclude it is malware.

You may have different software that is installed on your computer that could also affect how the clipboard functions. To resolve this issue, you either update or uninstall any recent software you suspect may cause the issue.

Furthermore, if you have a browser extension designed to assist in copy and paste, it may be interfering with clipboard operations. Ensure you uninstall them to resolve the issue.

In addition, sometimes certain faulty hardware components in your computer may manifest as clipboard issues. I recommend running hardware diagnostics to identify the problem.

There are rare cases where you may start to have clipboard issues after you updated the operating system of your computer. It could be that the some settings changed. You should check your settings to ensure that they are correctly configured.

This may not be as encompassing but you get the point. If the problem persists,  then read through LoyceV, How to lose your Bitcoins with CTRL-C CTRL-V  for help.